The Ohio Department of Education released this year’s school report cards Thursday morning, scoring each district and school on a variety of factors.
MENTOR, Ohio — The Ohio Department of Education released this year’s school report cards Thursday morning, scoring each district and school on a variety of factors.
Search and browse the database below to see how your child's school performed last year:
The following school districts in Northeast Ohio received an overall rating of 5 stars: Bay Village City, Beachwood City, Brecksville-Broadview Heights City, Fairview Park City, Mayfield City, North Royalton City, Rocky River City, Strongsville City, Westlake City, Chagrin Falls Exempted Village, Cuyahoga Heights Local, Orange City, Solon City, Kenston Local, West Geauga Local, Kirtland Local, Perry Local, Avon Local, Avon Lake City, Highland Local, Aurora City, Lake Local, Northwest Local, Tuslaw Local, Hudson City, Nordonia Hills City, Revere Local, Twinsburg City, Dalton Local and Greene Local.
While Jefferson Township Local in Montgomery County had the lowest rating in the state (1.5 Stars), East Cleveland City School District and Lorain City received the lowest rating in Northeast Ohio, with both earning 2 Stars.
In 2021, Governor Mike DeWine signed a bill into law that greenlit changes to the state report card ranking system. Instead of letter grades, districts and schools are scored on a scale of one to five stars in areas including achievement, progress, gap closing, graduation and early literacy.
Plans are also in place to begin grading districts and schools on their college, career, workforce and military readiness down the road and have that factor into a school or district's overall rating.
State leaders told News 5 this new system better showcases achievements and make it easier for parents to see how districts are performing.
“I think there are some real improvements in this report card,” said Scott DiMauro, President of the Ohio Education Association. "We think for far too long report cards have been boiled down to just a few components and are really tied to student test scores. We know that students are much more than a test score."
This is the first year districts and schools receive overall ratings, with an overall rating of at least 3 stars meaning a district or school meets state standards.
"What I hope is that [parents] will dig beneath that star rating," DiMauro added. "I think what's really important is digging into this opportunity and profile component of the report card to really understand what it is that schools are doing to lift up opportunities to make sure that they are serving all students."
The ripple effect from pandemic is still a problem
It's been three and a half years since the start of the pandemic, and educators told News 5 they are still dealing with the consequences of all that time spent outside the classroom and over ZOOM.
“You're also gonna see the impact of poverty show up in these report cards,” DiMauro explained. “We know that we have a system that was very inequitable even before COVID-19. The pandemic put a spotlight on those inequities and, in many ways, made them worse. So you see, especially in the highest poverty communities, that schools really need even more resources to make sure that their students are succeeding.”
"We're seeing improvement but we're not where we want to be," Interim Superintendent at the Ohio Department of Education Dr. Chris Woolard said. "When we look at all of our student groups, they all improved both in math and english last year. That's the good news. The more sobering news is that many of the gaps that existed before the pandemic are still there and in some cases are even worse."
Inside Sterling Morton Elementary School in Mentor, teachers Lindsay Grebenc and Brooke Curry appreciate seeing their classrooms finally feeling 'normal' after years of the pandemic and hybrid and remote learning.
"Trying to teach fractions on Zoom was not the best time," Curry chuckled. "We’re seeing the kids so excited to learn again. They’re happy to be back and they’re happy to be back in that routine and they’re thriving."
Their classrooms also have a third teacher helping out, one of about 25 elementary and middle school teachers hired by the district with COVID-19 relief funds. School leaders told News 5 these hires are meant to help students that need extra attention, and helped contribute to Mentor Public Schools going from a "4" star rating last year to a "4.5" star rating this year.
"[We're] trying to get those gaps closed and I think we’ve done a pretty good job at that," Superintendent Craig Heath said. "We've been given the resources and utilizes those resources effectively in our district by getting more teachers in the classrooms, more pullouts and targeted interventions for our students. We’re starting to identify where those gaps have lived in our curriculum and close those gaps."
"Our kids have come so far and they are so resilient and that showed in the pandemic," Curry added. "They got past this and they are growing and getting smarter every day and that’s something to be so proud of."
The release of the report cards coincides with the White House announcing more support toward accelerating academic achievement, including $50 million toward literacy intervention and infusing 187,000 new tutors across the country.
"We're still in recovery," U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona told News 5. "While I'm proud to see our schools open and our educators welcoming our families and students with open arms, we can't go back to the system that we had in 2019. We have to do better. We have to raise the bar. We have to provide more academic support for our students."
You can also view the report card for your district and districts across the state on the Ohio School Report Cards site here.
Clay LePard is a special projects reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on Twitter @ClayLePard or on Facebook Clay LePard News 5.
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